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Project managers list a host of reasons why they might never officially close a project. In some cases “scope creep” causes the project to mutate and grow in a thousand different directions, so much so that the original project may no longer even be recognizable. In other cases, the project may fail to reach its objectives, and the key players would rather not draw too much attention to that fact. It’s not uncommon for political factors in the organization to make it imprudent to evaluate and close some projects. And, in all too many cases, other priorities get in the way; although the primary objectives of the project may have been met, no one takes the time to evaluate the process and learn how it could be done even more efficiently next time.
Note | For more about how scope creep affects a project, see “What Is a Project?” in Chapter 1. |
The process involved in closing a project can be as critical as the process involved in defining and designing the project at the outset. If your goal is continual quality improvement, it is imperative that every project success or failure be carried through to its conclusion—you cannot improve if you don’t know what it is you are improving.
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